Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa designed a utopian vision interweaving the city and nature. Three years after his death, his vision is complete. Rowan More of the Observer pays Astana, the new capital, a visit.
Rowan asks, "...can a city, in all its teeming complexity, really be planned? Or does the attempt lead only to a synthetic simulacrum, a kind-of city that is not quite the real thing?"
Nonetheless, Rowan is surprised by the boldness of Kurokawa's vision:
"To look at, Astana is so strange that it has one grasping for images. It's a space station, marooned in an ungraspable expanse of level steppe, its name (to English speakers) having the invented sound of a science fiction writer's creation. It's a city of fable or dream, as recounted by Marco Polo to Kublai Khan."
FULL STORY: Astana, Kazakhstan: the space station in the steppes
Kazakhstan's Shiny and Empty New Capital
Kazakhstan built a new capital city in 1997 in far-off Astana. This piece from The New Yorker takes a tour of the city, and finds a unique architectural development underway, but a city still in its early years of formation.
Chilly Kazakhstan Building Indoor City
In the capital city of Astana, temperatures can drop to -40F. Kazakhstan's president Nursultan Nazarbayev says the city is fighting the cold by building an entirely indoor city, under a dome 2 kilometers across.
OPEC Plus Decision to Reduce Oil Output Could Lead to Global Recession
A decision earlier this month by a group of the world's largest oil exporters to drastically reduce oil production to stem the decline in oil prices could be a ‘tipping point’ for a global recession, says the International Energy Agency.
Maui's Vacation Rental Debate Turns Ugly
Verbal attacks, misinformation campaigns and fistfights plague a high-stakes debate to convert thousands of vacation rentals into long-term housing.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
Chicago’s Ghost Rails
Just beneath the surface of the modern city lie the remnants of its expansive early 20th-century streetcar system.
Bend, Oregon Zoning Reforms Prioritize Small-Scale Housing
The city altered its zoning code to allow multi-family housing and eliminated parking mandates citywide.
Amtrak Cutting Jobs, Funding to High-Speed Rail
The agency plans to cut 10 percent of its workforce and has confirmed it will not fund new high-speed rail projects.
LA Denies Basic Services to Unhoused Residents
The city has repeatedly failed to respond to requests for trash pickup at encampment sites, and eliminated a program that provided mobile showers and toilets.
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